Beeb's budget blunder: Where does the buck stop?

Thursday 29 May 2008 12.50 EDT
First published on Thursday 29 May 2008 12.50 EDT

Jaws dropped today when the BBC Trust revealed that bbc.co.uk had blown its budget by a whopping £36m - or 48% - last year. The trust was pretty scathing too about BBC management, saying it had "identified weaknesses" in bbc.co.uk's "strategic and editorial oversight", which need to be addressed. Hmm. The BBC executive reveals in its submission to the trust that the director of future, media and technology Ashley Highfield "is responsible for ensuring that bbc.co.uk has a clear overall strategy", while his group controller Erik Huggers "sets priorities and the broad strategic direction, and resolves editorial, technical and budget questions". As revealed by MediaGuardian.co.uk last month, Highfield is off to head up internet TV joint venture Project Kangaroo in July, where he's presumably earning more than the £359,000 he picked up from the BBC last year. And the man tipped to replace him? None other than Erik Huggers.